giving thanks

Recently I have been reflecting on things in my life that I am thankful for. Now that the day is nearly upon me, I think it's appropriate to share som of what it is that I am thankful for. This is a bit "stream of consciousness," so this is in no real order. This is a partial list. Please forgive misspellings and accidental exclusions. For length I just listed parents for families.

I am thankful for:

My wife Nancy and our 2 kids, Emma and Corben
Karl and Kathy Pierburg
Jackie and Mark Reitsma
Jill Adams
Eve Rickert
Kathy and Paul Craig
Isaiah and Cindy Neil
Brian Zibell
April and Brian Diaz
Dana Evans
Aimee Pomplin
Lisa Ginter
Matt and Jenny Shelton
David and Reagan Glover
David and Xuan Gibson
Brian and Jen Schwammlein
Gretchen
Beth Baker
Eric and Chantelle Becking
Darin and Meeghan Petersen
Shane and Christi Tucker
Andy and Cris Goodfellow
Mike and Barb Ysteboe
Brandon and Laurale Ysteboe
Tanna Finley
Brad and Betina Foley
Joe and Audra Thomas
Doug and Liesel Gruener
Darin and Trisha Kochersperger
Mark and Maggie Mohr
Michael and Teri Matteoni
Doug Duty
Dan and Marla Gutknecht
All my Studio North Friends
Bill Westlake
Cindy Collins
Matthew Smith
Brian Smith
Frank Troescher
Steffen Troescher
Kris Derwae
Jeff and Erin Frazier
Jarett and Jeannie Stevens
David and Cherie Bulger
David and Mindy Rausch
Adrian and Scott Kegel
Curtis and Emily Bell
Nate Heldman
John Oliver
Jeff Saylor
Courtney Fisk
Jared Hess
Jeff and Patrice Hess
Drew Tegtmeyer
Barb and Don Tegtmeyer
Hugh and Kathy Pierburg
Brittany Pierburg
Beth Pierburg
Dane Suffern
Bruce and Jan Suffern
Chris Wagner
Mark and Carrie Schmidt
Bo Boshers
Dick and Sybill Towner
Kyle Strobel
Keith and Angela Cote
Larry and Karen Stika
Jim and Kim Herlihy
All my WCCC friends
Merle and Judy Daharsh
David and Becky Daharsh
Andrew and Miriam Daharsh
Kim and Dennis Tweten
Rachel Daharsh
Ronnie and Gayle Daharsh
Howard and Jill Daharsh
Sarah and Andrew Lemley
Julie and Toby Weishaar
Dick and Trudy Furbeck
Paul and Margaret Furbeck
Mike and LouAnne Ellenburg
Jeremy Angel
Jeannie and Brian Lee
Tammy and John Paap
Allison and Craig Epp
Scott and Daneilla Harper
Robby and Dana Langston
Wayne and Sarah Gibson
Rebecca Major
All my CHCS Friends
Carissa Craven
Matt Burkhalter
Randy and Julie Barnard
Randy and Rhonda Carey
Tim and Sherill Kraft
Greg and Rebecca Miller
Todd and Missy Schmidt
Lucille Angle
My Daharsh Aunts, Uncles and Cousins
My Angle Aunts, Uncles and Cousins
Rachel Herrera
George Coll
Lynda Abromeit
Dan Edmunson
All my CoCoa friends
Ron and Kim Rudkin
Glenn and Karen Meyer
Rex and Andrea Minor
Nick and Jesse Carey
All my PEAK friends
My Vineyard Small Group Friends
Steven and Melanie Hovey
Drew and Lizzie Davis
Jamie Cassar
All my Lemon Street Gallery Friends

The most important things to me outside my faith are the relationships God has blessed me with.

"I thank my God every time I remember you. "
Philippians 1:3

I'm going to continue to work on this, since names and faces are coming faster than I can type, and I need to move on for now. To be continued...

what have I been up to?

It's been a while since I posted last. There's no real reason other than wanting to wait until something really noteworthy happened.

No big news yet, I just wanted to let everyone know what's been going on.

October proved to be a challenging month for us, and for business. I have had a number of potential jobs slip through my fingers for various reasons so the month ended up really slow from a billing standpoint. The encouraging thing is that there are a number of jobs "out there" that I have waiting for approval, so I'm hopeful that they will start solidifying and November will redeem October's shortcomings.

I thought I'd show off some of what has been done since we've been back in Colorado. For those of you who don't know, the business I have started here is Western Ascent

mc2-creative (design by mc2-creative, built by Western Ascent)
Cocoa (designed and built by Western Ascent)
Rudkin Homes (designed and built by Western Ascent)
Kansas Clays & Hunts (designed and built by Western Ascent)
Western Ascent (designed and built by Western Ascent)

I have continued to be involved as a consultant with Studio North working on Addison Public Library's site.

I am in process on one other web site, and hope to start 2 more this week. As mentioned earlier, there are several jobs waiting on various things from the clients' end to solidify.

On a non-business note, I am taking an oil painting class from Rachel Herrera that is going well. Rachel has a great style and is extremely gifted. She's been a patient teacher and her class has enabled me to go from never having painted to being able to create something that I really like.

I actually entered my first painting into a show. I am going to enter another show at the end of the month. I'll have several of my photos for sale as well as several paintings.

I have also been learning how to build custom frames (for fine art) from George Coll at his amazing studio and workshop in Loveland. Over the past month I have spent several weekends going through the process and learning quite a bit. George is a great guy, a gifted painter and an excellent craftsman and it has been a real treat to spend time learning from someone of his caliber.

We've been attending the local Vineyard Church and really enjoying that. We went for the first time 6 weeks ago, and they were starting a series on "The Purpose Driven Life". They had an evening small group that offered childcare at the church, so we started that 6 weeks ago as well. Nancy and I are the only ones in the group with kids, and I'm pretty sure we're the oldest couple there, but it's been great and we've been making friends.

We're doing well. I won't make a habit of posting so infrequently. Thanks for reading!